EV or not EV ?

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For a lot of us, it is an irrelevant question.

EV's are too expensive for me to afford to buy, and even if I could afford one, they have not yet built one that meets my needs (able to tow a 2 ton trailer with a sensible range, like my present vehicle will do almost 300 miles with the trailer on the hook)

When EV's are available at an affordable price and with a decent specification, then I will consider one.

Moving the date to match the rest of Europe, gives the industry another 5 years to get it right, and I hope they do. In the mean time no point buying an expensive, early technology poor spec vehicle, I will let others be the Guinea pigs.

If they fail to make an EV that meets my needs and is affordable in that time, then with ICE cars available until 2035 and a life of 20 years for many of them then that will take me to age 90.

So I won't be losing sleep over this dilemma.
 
So we can now buy ICE cars until 2035
Thats not quite the whole picture. The manufacturers are still on a quota system where at the moment 22% of vehicles produced must be EV and sold in the UK, export numbers dont count. By 2030 this will have changed to 80% of all vehicle's sold must be EV and sold in the UK.

Does this mean EVs will become much cheaper?
Probably not, the price of EV's may actually rise a little whereas the cost of IC engined vehicles with much lower number will result in poor quality high priced cars.
 
I really cant see this change in the target dates having much of an impact with the manufacturers,,, most of them have their business plan already set for the change (bearing in mind that around 1 in 30 new car sales are EV’s)

Over the next few years these EV’s will be hitting the second hand market, making them more affordable
 
Thats not quite the whole picture. The manufacturers are still on a quota system where at the moment 22% of vehicles produced must be EV and sold in the UK, export numbers dont count. By 2030 this will have changed to 80% of all vehicle's sold must be EV and sold in the UK.

Be interesting to see the impact of the number of actual car sales, because if lots of people keep their vehicles longer, which already seems to be the norm (and a good way to reduce consumption) .

Cars will last 20 years already if looked after.
 
I expect that some enterprising private companies will evolve, repairing and refurbishing battery packs, and maybe the drive units.
Unless and until that happens I would be concerned that my still expensive used EV could suddenly become worthless due to repair costs.
As others have said, not a worry in practice as I won't be around to see it.
 
I expect that some enterprising private companies will evolve, repairing and refurbishing battery packs, and maybe the drive units.
Thats already happening, several companies have started up doing just that.

Unless and until that happens I would be concerned that my still expensive used EV could suddenly become worthless due to repair costs.
There are the doom mongers around that often say that the battery is worn out after 7 years and effectively writes the car off. With very few exceptions this isn't the case, manufacturers warranty is for 7 or 8 years on the battery, if they're confident it's going to last that long it's going to keep going a lot longer than the warranty period. My Outlander PHEV which we have just replaced with an MG had 185,000 miles on the clock, still had good range on electric drive and was faultless. My BMW i3 has 86,000 on the clock is 6 years old and is showing no signs of battery deterioration. The BMW battery is a Samsung unit with 80% life point at 6000 cycles. The car does average 140 miles on a charge, 6000 cycles = 840,000 miles. Thats the 80% level so it's not dead, still perfectly useable, if had had dropped to 80% that would still give 112 miles range. The rest the car electronics are like most quality electronic items, fail within a month or go on for ever. That leaves conventional mechanical items - wheel bearings, suspension, steering, brakes etc, just the same as a standard ICE car except the brakes have an easier time of it due to regen braking.
As others have said, not a worry in practice as I won't be around to see it.
Well you can see it now, join the EV fraternity it makes a lot of sense.
 
If you have seen the latest hike in crude oil prices, EV makes a lot of sense. Shame the government isn't doing anything about decoupling the price of leccy generated by green tech from gas generated leccy.
 
If you have seen the latest hike in crude oil prices, EV makes a lot of sense. Shame the government isn't doing anything about decoupling the price of leccy generated by green tech from gas generated leccy.
Of course the way to ensure electricity is totally decoupled is to generate it oneself from PV.
 
Of course the way to ensure electricity is totally decoupled is to generate it oneself from PV.
My i3 has run on nothing but sunlight since late February, cant fault it :)
Comparing it with a diesel car with 60mpg, my i3 costs me 1.5p per mile if I charge on off peak, the diesel would be 12.5p per mile. A diesel would have to achieve almost 500 mpg to compete with home charged electric. When you add on the servicing costs, road tax etc it becomes a real no brainer.
 
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